Takedown (2000) on Netflix
Kevin Mitnick breaks into computers for the information they hold while federal agents chase him without success. He targets the system of computer crimes expert Tsutomu Shimomura.
- Netflix2.9/5
- IMDb6.2/107,438 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
For years now the hacker Kevin Mitnick has stayed ahead of federal agents. Using the latest electronic gadgetry, he breaks into one computer after another and gains access to sensitive and valuable information. He collects trophies from the machines he enters and never stops hunting for a bigger challenge. The system he breaches next belongs to Tsutomu Shimomura, a leading expert on computer crimes and a former hacker himself. Shimomura's machine offers a challenge of the kind Mitnick seeks, and the intrusion sets off a chase through cyberspace between two hard-driven men who work on opposite sides of the law.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Takedown (2000)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The film's producers faced a lawsuit from author Jonathan Littman, who alleged that portions of the screenplay were taken from his book The Fugitive Game: Online with Kevin Mitnick. As a result the film was not released in the United States until 24 September 2004, when Dimension Films put it out direct to video.
- The film shows Mitnick hacking NORAD, the NSA and other famous government institutes, which never in fact happened. It also shows him stealing and deleting Shimomura's files; Mitnick admits hacking Shimomura's computers using IP spoofing but says he only copied some software source code out of curiosity, damaging nothing.
- In his book The Art of Deception, Kevin Mitnick calls both the book and the movie extremely inaccurate and based on media hype. In the film he and Shimomura meet twice, and one of those meetings prompts him to flee to Seattle; that meeting never actually took place.
